And here it is!  The recording from last week of my performance with Zane Merritt of Meredith Gilna's Meaningless Noise:

The entire concert is also available. Check out the "Improv Skirmish," where I have at it with Zane and the stellar cellist T.J. Borden. It leads into Zane's epic and incredibly metal duo for electric guitar and cello, The Reputation.

This past weekend, I made a trip to Buffalo, NY to premiere Meaningless Noise by Meredith Gilna, a duo for bass and guitar.  The concert was with Zane Merritt, guitarist and composer extraordinaire.  It was a great to be able to work on the piece with Zane and Meredith, and also do some improvising!

Springtime in Buffalo was in full, fantastic bloom, which was incredibly enjoyable until it caught up with my allergies.  The steady stream of mucous from my face, however, did not interfere with my enjoyment of the experience.  It was my first visit to Buffalo, and the city seems to be a vibrant arts community.  I hope to go back soon!

I will hopefully soon have recordings of Meredith's piece, as well as many improvisations with Zane, to share with you.

The ambient/experimental compilation Colias 1 is now available to buy/stream on the web.  My piece, Agatha, is track 24!

The fantastic Madison-based label Mine All Mine Records, in collaboration with Grimmusik, is releasing a compilation this week of ambient and experimental music.  I've contributed a track, and it's an honor to be included.  The release features tracks from many stellar musicians, including Thollem McDonas,CJ Boyd, Brothers Grimm,Pat Reinholz, and many, many more. 

The album will be streamed live TOMORROW at MIDNIGHT on Gross Time.

There's an album release show on Friday night in Madison, that's going to be amazing.

In other news, Kirsten Carey has released the second of the four videos we shot from her Ulysses Project last month.  We spent three days in the studio this past weekend recording the entire album, and I'm excited to say that it's going to be totally kickass. 

If you haven't yet donated to her Kickstarter to ensure completion of the album and reserve your copy, DO IT!!!!

The stellar guitarist/composer Kirsten Carey has written a set of pieces based on James Joyce's monstrous novel, Ulysses.  I'm happy to be playing in the band for the project, which will be recording this coming weekend!

She will be releasing 4 videos that we recorded last month over the next 4 weeks.  Here is the first one:

The next 4 weeks is also the duration of her Kickstarter campaign to fund the making of the album.  I would encourage/implore anyone reading this to donate, because it sure is good to be a part of projects that actually have a chance of coming to fruition!  This is a really great set of free-jazz inflected tunes.

Check it out!

Devin Drobka, drums
Amanda Schoofs, voice
Ben Willis, bass

Finally had a chance to edit some video of this performance together:

I still have a couple Soft Alarm t-shirts. If anybody wants one, give me a holler!

I failed to post this here a few months ago, but here is a very short film I made with my Thad Curious partner, Ryan Epp:

So this week I've become a little bit obsessed with playing a 140 year-old banjo through my 3 year-old computer. I'm working to develop an electroacoustic improvising platform that I can apply more broadly. It's still in its formative stages, but I'm pretty excited about it.

While I don't actually play banjo, exactly, I'm finding that using it in my explorations of developing a computer instrument is really useful. I plan to eventually use this interface for performing on bass, but removing that element and all of my precepts that go along with it have freed me to be more open to experimentation. 

Also, the banjo is smaller, which is nice sometimes.

Dietrich Gosser has released his new 7 inch, Somewhere in the Night/When Morning Comes this week!  We recorded these tracks last summer in his house, and it was a great time.  I'm really proud to be a part of these songs.  This also marks my first recorded work being pressed on vinyl, which is exciting for me.

Check out these songs on Bandcamp. (Listen for the distorted bass noise 'guitar solo' on When Morning Comes!)

Sympathy Swimmers has a couple of performances lined up in March! I'm looking forward to performing with this group again.

Eric Sheffield; guitar, electronics
Anna Weisling; live video
Jeff Herriott; electronics
Ben Willis; bass

March 16th, 2012: Canterbury House, Ann Arbor, MI, 8:00p
March 17th, 2012: UM Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo, MI, EMM Festival


Here's Anna, Eric, and me performing our piece, exit crafting: